Microsoft to Issue Five Security Fixes

At least one of the updates will carry a "critical" rating, which Microsoft assigns to flaws that could be used by attackers or automated computer worms to take over vulnerable computers without any action on the part of the user.

As usual, Security Fix will have more details when Microsoft releases the patches on Tuesday.

In case anyone was wondering why Security Fix has been so sparse on updates lately, I had emergency surgery last Friday to remove a nearly ruptured appendix (hence the postponed Security Fix Live Web chat). Since Tuesday, I have been camped out in gorgeous Vancouver, British Columbia, at CanSecWest '06, a hacker conference featuring presentations by some of the most skilled and knowledgeable security researchers in the industry. Security Fix will have a roundup of some of the more provocative conference talks sometime on Friday.